MINISTERING TO THE LORD IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH!

To receive the breakthrough you desire, you MUST worship God in spirit and in truth. Praise and worship usher in the presence of God.

Psalm 22:3 says, “…O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel (His people).”

What happens in His presence? (1) In His presence there is fullness of joy (Ps. 16:11). (2) In His Presence the power of God is released to destroy every yoke - BREAKTHROUGH. (3) In His Presence your mind is on things above (Col. 3:1-2). (4) In His Presence there is no danger; you are fully protected (Ps. 91:1-12). (5) In His Presence there is no fear (2 Tim. 1:7).

Therefore today, we are going to look at “MINISTERING TO THE LORD IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH!”

Acts 13:1-3 says, “Now there were in the church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 As they MINISTERED TO THE LORD, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. 3 And when they had (a) fasted and (b) prayed, and (c) laid their hands on them, (d) they sent them away.”

In Acts 13:1-3 the people were not petitioning God to do anything for them. Rather they just fasted and ministered to the Lord.

When we wait upon God and minister to Him, we should not ask Him for anything. Rather we simply praise and worship Him (1) in spirit and (2) in truth.

But what really happens when we gather as a local assembly? So many people come to church, not necessarily to minister to the Lord, but to pray and seek God on their own behalf, praying that certain needs will be met, and then they minister to certain needs of each other.

We usually minister to ourselves and to one another because most of the songs we sing do not minister to the LORD.

For instance, we sing songs like:

1. We are victorious, yes we are victorious, glory be to God who has given us victory;
2. Oh when the saints, go marching in….;
3. My hope is built on nothing less;
4. Pass me not O gentle Saviour, etc.

The above songs do not minister to the Lord. But the truth is that when we first of all minister to the LORD, He will surely reach out to us and minister to our needs. This is because when we minister to the LORD first, we create the right atmosphere for miracles. His glory comes down when we praise and worship Him in one accord (in unity; with one mind and one voice) (2 Chron. 5:11-14).

This is true: More worship, more power! As the worship of the saints grows purer, more intense and sustained longer, the manifestation and experience of God’s glory will increase in intensity. This is when the Holy Ghost manifests Himself in our midst without restraint.

Here is the point: The real purpose of praise and worship is to create an environment for the presence of God to be manifested. We usher in His presence, and in His presence, there is fullness of joy and at His right hand there are pleasures forever more (Ps. 16:11). This type of environment is called “THE ATMOSPERE FOR MIRACLES!” It is in this kind of atmosphere of pure praise and worship that God does more for people.

As these prophets and teachers ministered to the Lord in Acts 13, the Holy Ghost manifested Himself and said something. I am convinced that God will speak to us more as He did to Saul and Barnabas in Acts 13, if we would take more time to minister to Him.

What does it mean to minister to the Lord? Ministering to the Lord is the prayer of praise and worship. In this type of prayer we just minister to God so as to have fellowship with Him. As you minister to our Father God, you are effectively interacting with Him.

Real worship is spiritual! A worship that pleases God is deeply emotional and deeply doctrinal (agrees with the written Word of God).

Real worship happens when your spirit-man responds to the Spirit of God, not to some musical tone. In reality, some sentimental songs we sing in church hinder worship because they take your attention off God and focus it on your feelings. Any such worship is not spiritual but carnal.

In Acts 13:2 the Bible says, “As they MINISTERED TO THE LORD, and fasted, the Holy Ghost SAID…”

Ministering to the Lord involves singing SPIRITUAL SONGS, to Him.

Ephesians 5:18-20 says, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; 19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and SPIRITUAL SONGS, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 20 Giving thanks always for ALL THINGS unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

What are spiritual songs? These are songs that are strictly Scripture based. The wordings line up with the Word of God.

When we come to minister to the Lord in praise and worship, we should expect to wait at least for an hour, perhaps longer, ministering to the Lord. We are just going to tell Him how much we love Him, praise Him and thank Him for His goodness and mercy. That is what ministering to the Lord is.

When we express our love to God we are worshipping Him. The Bible also commands us to celebrate His presence. How? By magnifying the Lord and exalting His name (Ps. 34:3).

What does it mean to magnify the LORD? To magnify the LORD means to celebrate God’s presence in worship.

What is praise? Praise is thanking God for the things He has done for you, what He is doing for you right now, and what He will yet do for you in the future.

What is Worship? Worship is appreciating God for who He is. In John 4:24 Jesus said, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him MUST worship Him (1) in spirit and (2) in truth.”

And you can only appreciate God for who He is by knowing His names and their meanings. Some 7 Hebrew words in the Old Testament describe how believers are supposed to use their mouths and body movements in praising and worshipping God:

1. Barak. This means to bless, to declare God the origin of power for success, prosperity, fertility. It means to be still before Him (Ps. 46:10). This praise may be quiet and hushed (with little or no sound).

2. Shabach. This means to commend; to address in loud tone; to shout.

3. Todah. This means to extend hands in thanksgiving, thanking God for His goodness and faithfulness as you count your blessings (Ps. 134:2).

4. Yadah. This means to worship God with extended hands just appreciating Him for who He is; to throw out the hands enjoying God (Ps. 107:15). Worship involves lifting up holy hands unto God as a sign of total surrender to Him.

Yadah is the word to worship God with extended hands. But these hands must be holy. Why? Because, if they are filthy, God will not receive the worship since the worship is false. The prayer [worship] of an unrighteous man is an abomination unto God (Prov. 15:8; 1 Tim. 2:8).

Worship involves focusing your heart [spirit man] and mind [subconscious mind] on God. Focusing on the Holy One has a purifying effect upon you. Focusing on the God of love will cause you to love like Him. Focusing on His might, power and greatness will strengthen your faith. Focusing on Him involves (1) meditation and (2) concentration.

Todah and Yadah show that raising hands in worship is not a new charismatic craze; rather, it is a spiritual principle. So as you worship and praise the Lord, obey the leading of the Holy Spirit. Don’t be afraid to stand, kneel, bow, dance, clap your hands or lift up your hands to the Lord.

5. Zamar. This means to pluck the strings of an instrument; to praise with songs (Ps. 150).

6. Hallal. This means to be vigorously excited; to celebrate (Ps. 34:3).This type of praise or worship is done with a loud voice. Hallal plus the divine name, Yah, gives Halleluyah which means “Praise the Lord.”

7. Tehillah. This is the Hebrew word for worshipping God in the spirit, singing in the spirit, or the singing of hallals or Psalms.

Worship is an activity of the spirit-man. True worship requires people contacting God, the Spirit, with their spirit-man.

New Testament worship must be in spirit and in truth. Since “God is Spirit,” He must be worshipped in spirit.

A human being is a spirit (1 Thess. 5:23), the nature of which corresponds to God’s nature, which is Spirit. Therefore, you can only have fellowship with God and worship Him in the same sphere that He exists in, by doing so with your spirit-man.

What is praise? Praise is the announcement of God’s greatness and faithfulness. Praise is a garment. Isaiah 61:3 says, “…the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness…”

So learn to put on your garment of praise. For instance, when you put on your winter jacket, that’s when you stay warm no matter how cold the weather is.

Praise is the heartfelt response to God by those who love Him. The more you get to know God and realize what He has done for you, the more you will respond to Him with praise. Therefore, let your praise of God flow out of your realization of who He is and how much He loves you.

Praise is at the heart of true worship. We are created to praise God (Ps. 145:2-3). In Psalm 34:1 David said, “I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”

Although the Bible invites us to praise God, we often aren’t sure how to go about it. Here, several ways are suggested: by (1) singing, (2) dancing, or (3) playing musical instruments. God enjoys His people, and we should enjoy praising Him too (Ps. 149:3-5).

WHAT IS WORSHIP? Worship is a reverential adoration of God in spirit and in truth. Worship is appreciating God for who He is.

For you to effectively minister to the LORD, you must do so (a) in spirit and (b) in truth.

In John 4:24 Jesus said, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him MUST worship Him (1) in spirit and (2) in truth.”

What does it mean to worship God in spirit? This means to worship God with your spirit-man and your whole soul – your emotions, your desire, your will and your mind.

Worship is an activity of the spirit-man (Jn. 4:24). You exercise your spirit-man whenever you pray and worship God.

Such spiritual exercise strengthens your spirit-man; that is to say that worship strengthens your spirit-man.

In worship, there is a joining of your spirit-man to the Spirit of God. Do you want to enjoy a divine romance with God? Then worship Him in spirit and in truth.

In 1 Corinthians 6:16-17 the Bible says, “Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For "the two," He says, "shall become one flesh."  17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”

Since worship involves delighting in God, it engages your emotions. God gave you emotions so you could worship Him with deep feelings – but those emotions must be genuine, not faked. God hates hypocrisy. He doesn’t want showmanship or pretense in worship at all. He wants your honest, real love.

Mary, the woman from whom Jesus cast out 7 demons, is a good example of a person that worshiped God in spirit (Jn. 12:1-3).

Mary worshipped Jesus with genuine deep feelings. In Luke 7:36-48 the Bible says, “Then one of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee's house, and sat down to eat. 37 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, 38 and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil…."

Mary stood at the feet of Jesus behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.

Realizing what God did for her by raising the brother Lazarus from the dead, Mary did all she could to give God a quality gift. Mary had to work for one year to earn the money to buy that alabaster box of ointment with which she anointed Jesus. The cost of that fragrant oil was estimated at 70,000.00 US Dollars or 1.05 million Nigerian naira. That was a quality seed – the right kind of offering.

Mary did not mind who was there or what they thought about her, but she worshipped the Lord with her whole spirit-man, her whole soul – emotions, desire, will, and mind. Her tears did not wet any other part of Jesus. Her tears wet the feet of Jesus, but with her hair she wiped the tears away. What a total worship! For her tears to wet only the feet of Jesus meant that she must have bowed down to worship Him. She bowed to the lowest level, and that is the level of His feet. That is humility!

The Bible says, “…whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 18:4).

Realize that she did not start from His head or hands of Jesus but from His feet. I believe that as she bowed low before the Lord, she sang the song: “Down at your feet O Lord, is the most high place!”

She was simply obeying the Scriptures which says, “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our God and Maker. 7 For He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand” (Ps. 95:6-7, KJV).

The Bible says that the hair of the woman is her glory (1 Cor. 11:15). The hair of the woman is the most valuable thing in her entire body. With that which was the most valuable part of her body, she worshipped Jesus.

She also anointed Jesus with the most expensive ointment. She worshipped Jesus with her all.

Mary knew that worshipping Jesus is appreciating Him for who He is. I believe that Mary, as she wept at the feet of Jesus, lifted up her voice and eulogized Jesus saying, You are:

THE CREATOR (Gen. 1:1; Jn. 1:3; Col. 1:16; 1 Pet. 4:19).

THE SEED OF THE WOMAN (Gen 3:15).

THE POSSESSOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH (Gen. 14:19-20).

THE JUDGE OF THE WHOLE EARTH (Gen. 18:25).

THE RAM AT ABRAHAM’S ALTAR (Gen. 22:13).

MASTER AND LORD (Gen. 27:27).

MASTER AND OWNER OF THE EARTH (Gen. 40:7).

THE PASSOVER LAMB (Gen. 12:3-13).

THE LAMB OF GOD (Jn. 1:29).

THE LAMB OF GOD FOR SINNERS SLAIN (Ex. 12).

THE PILLAR OF CLOUD BY DAY AND THE PILLAR OF FIRE BY NIGHT (Ex. 13:21).

THE STAR OUT OF JACOB (Num. 24:17).

THE SCEPTER OUT OF ISRAEL (Num. 24:17).

THE PROPHET LIKE UNTO MOSES (Deut. 18:15), etc.

Tehillah shakes the very foundations of the devil in your life and frees you from every kind of bondage.

How does that happen? True worship is like a supply of spiritual oxygen to the Lord. That is to say that when we don’t worship God, we are actually starving Him of spiritual energy. When He receives this spiritual oxygen, a divine chemical reaction takes place. The more intense the worship is, the greater the amount of energy (power) released. As He releases this spiritual energy, every yoke present in His Presence is broken/destroyed without fail. That is deliverance!

In Acts 16:25-26 the Bible says, “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were loosed.”

The Psalmist discovered this truth and said, “I will bless the Lord at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Ps. 34:1).

“Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day” (Ps. 71:8).

Conclusion: Do you want the yokes in your life to be destroyed? Do you want to be an all-round overcomer? Do you want a manifestation of God’s glory? Do you want a manifestation of the miraculous? Do you want to be truly anointed? Do you want rivers of the spirit to be flowing freely in your life? Do you want to escape spiritual drought and barrenness? Do you want to see mountains crumble before you? Do you want to see the Red Sea part before you? Do you want to see demons bow before you? Then spend quality time praising and worshipping God in spirit and in truth.

Watch out for the next edition of Good News from the Pulpit!

• ·         Your friend: I. I. MADUBUNYI (Senior Pastor)                                             30.07. 2017